Making toys and rebuilding lives

First order

Their first real test came sooner than expected. The Fairmont Beijing Hotel placed an order for 50 blind boxes featuring its bear mascot. The order was small — worth only about 1,500 yuan ($221.74) — but the stakes felt enormous.

"We spent around 80 hours on just the design," said Wang, who met Cao years ago through their children, who were classmates. "Turning a flat mascot into a 3D-printed figure was completely new. We had to revise it again and again."

Li Siwei, a 38-year-old technician, was among the first apprentices at Li Changsen's training sessions last July and one of the program's best graduates. A former soldier, Li was injured in a car accident in 2016 that left him with spinal injuries. "I'd heard about 3D printing for years but never had the chance to try it," he said. "Now, sometimes when certain things break down at home, I just design and print a replacement."

While Li Siwei did not himself work on the Fairmont blind boxes, he helped the team with other custom designs.

For the Fairmont project, the complex modeling was handled by Li Changsen while the core team focused on design iteration, assembly and post-processing. Because they were still learning advanced 3D modeling, they relied on Li Changsen to refine the digital files and ensure the bear mascot could be printed as separate pieces that could be assembled.

Shen said the Fairmont order proved a point. "That order barely covered the cost of materials," he said. "But it showed we could deliver professional-quality work. The hotel said the final product exceeded their expectations of what 3D printing could achieve."